Personal Development

The Best Approach To Setting Goals and Achieving Them

For as long as I’ve been alive, I’ve been a huge advocate of setting goals both big and small constantly – it exists in my daily tasks, my 3-month, 1-year, 5-year, and life-long plan. Though I haven’t always been successful in checking off my list, I’ve surely learned a thing or two about how to become more effective at it. Read on to learn more about my process.

Decide what you want to accomplish.

What is it exactly that you want to do – it’s simple as that. Be specific, but realistic because you’re not going to be a millionaire tomorrow or famous within the next week. Then write it down and tell it to yourself repeatedly until it is engrained in your mind and instinctive to your soul because after it becomes that natural, commitment to the goal becomes intuitive.

Stop focusing on the actual goal.

Goals provide a good big picture direction, but they don’t always ensure you’re on the right path to getting there. So once you’re set on a goal and you know you’ve committed, stop focusing on the actual end result. Instead, hone in on your process and system for how you go about accomplishing your goal(s) on a regular basis. For instance, if you decide I want to become a Fashion Blogger for a living, you don’t keep your focus on becoming a fashion blogger or the glorious life of Zanita, Chiara, or Rumi. You focus on unique but approachable styling, taking beyond beautiful pictures, writing witty commentary, and upping your social media game.

Re-assess.

Then you need to make time to review your progress (and be sure to do it often) – is it working? What’s not working? If necessary, change your methodology and re-assess again. This is a constant practice of checks and balances and it’s a requisite in propelling yourself forward.

Adapt.

Understand that there are circumstances beyond your control and you can’t always foresee what they may look like or when they will occur. Therefore, you need to be able to act accordingly in those instances. It’s much easier to make a small change to your process when reacting to an unfavorable situation than it is to change your entire goal. Always be willing to change.

Repeat.

Do it all over again and you’ll eventually find a system that works for you.